


begin again

by throughout



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Beginnings, Episode: s15e08 coda, Fluff, M/M, Soft schmico, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, how i deal with my feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/throughout/pseuds/throughout
Summary: The one where Nico is soft, Levi is soft, and the author flails at every mention of Schmico and needed an outlet for her feelings





	begin again

**Author's Note:**

> hehe if u follow me on tumblr then u knew this was coming :') 
> 
> mentions of blood/open surgery but hey it's a grey's fic
> 
> find me on tumblr [goldenalec](http://goldenalec.tumblr.com/) <3

Levi was just kind of getting the hang of it, you know. The whole “being calm” thing.

And then Nico Kim had kissed him in the ambulance, and stolen his breath and heart all at once. _Again._

Talented, intelligent... _gorgeous_ Nico Kim.

There was no way he could have controlled the incessant rhythm his heart played against the confines of his chest after that.

Levi remembers the way Nico had pulled back abruptly and looked at him, eyes blown wide with desire and chest rising and falling rapidly.

“What? What’s wrong?” Levi had asked, heart thudding fiercely against his ribs.

“I – we should – we should stop.”

Levi never thought he’d ever see the day when Nico Kim was left flustered and stuttering. And it had been because of _him._

But that revelation hadn’t been enough to cut through the cloud of doubt, fear and panic that had begun to take over his mind at the prospect of Nico rejecting him. Again.

“Do you not want to?”

 _“No_. _”_ The word was ripped from Nico’s throat, who stopped, closed his eyes and shook his head as if to clear it, before speaking again, “I mean – _of course_ I want to. Just not now. Not here.”

It was only then that Levi had seemed to remember that they were in an ambulance, in a wind tunnel, during one of the most dangerous wind storms to hit their area in recent memory.

“Uh – yeah, I mean. Duh.” He’d let out a nervous laugh, “You’re probably right. Smart. Yeah.”

And then Nico had laughed a breathless laugh that sent Levi’s stomach into a flurry of somersaults. His hands had run up and down the sides of his waist, somehow warming him and making goosebumps erupt all over him at the same time.

“Yeah. Let’s wait a little.” He’d said, before leaning forward to press a soft, lingering kiss to Levi’s lips.“I’m gonna make it worth your while.”

That had been a few days ago, and Levi _still_ hasn’t been able to get those words out of his mind, or the raspy voice Nico had said them in. It’s especially inconvenient now, when he’s got his hands in a patient’s chest cavity with Meredith Grey standing across from him, when he’s assisting her in a surgery that had only been attempted five times and been successful three times out of those five.

Levi senses him now, looking down at him from the gallery.

He dares to take a look when Dr. Grey isn’t looking. 

And that’s a mistake, because now Levi can’t concentrate on a damn thing because Nico is smiling at him like _that._

Not that half smirk he does whenever Levi is his usual clueless self (though that does get Levi’s blood flowing like nothing else ever could). It’s not even that full blown grin that takes over his entire face, the one that’s so goddamn beautiful and that feels like the sun.

This is a quiet, reserved smile. One that’s disarmingly beautiful and honest, one Levi hasn’t really seen on his face before.

It’s doing all _sorts_ of things to Levi.

The bruise above his eyebrow is healing nicely. He’s sitting in the front row, in between Dr. Lincoln and Dr. Avery, arms folded across his chest, eyes twinkling with something beautiful, something Levi can’t yet put into words. When Levi catches his gaze, Nico brings his thumb up to gently run it over his bottom lip, an action that seems almost unconscious and so simple and yet somehow manages to turn Levi’s knees into jelly.

The gallery is full of people, all there to see the legendary Meredith Grey attempting a surgery few had ever dared to. But Nico is only looking at him.

And Levi was the intern lucky enough to scrub in on the surgery. But all he can concentrate on is Nico’s gaze on him, the phantom feeling of his lips on his not a few days ago.

The gasp that had fallen from Nico’s lips when Levi had pressed his lips to the soft skin of his neck.

“Damn it.” Dr. Grey’s voice, coupled with the shrill beeping of the pulse monitor alarm jolts him back to reality. He manages to tear his gaze away from Nico to see a colossal bleed in the patient’s abdominal area, flooding instruments and tubes until it’s almost impossible to distinguish what’s instrument and what isn’t.

“She’s tachycardic, Dr. Grey.” One of the nurses says.

And the next thing Levi knows, he’s grabbing a clamp from the table next to him and putting his hand in, and then the beeping suddenly subsides.

The silence that follows is pretty jarring in contrast. The nurses stare at him like he’s suddenly sprouted antlers. Levi looks down at the clamp he’s managed to place over the bleed perfectly the first time, shocked at himself as well. Dr. Grey is the first to break the silence, nodding at him.

“Good work, Schmitt.” There’s a hint of surprise in her eyes over her mask.

“Th – thanks.”

After the surgery (which had gone without another hitch), Levi is the last one in the scrub room. He lets the water drip off his hands slowly, before grabbing one of the towels to dry them off.

He catches some movement near the door, and turns to look.

Nico is standing there with his arms folded across his chest, a small, playful smile tugging at the edges of his lips. Levi watches as he unfurls his arms and takes the two steps needed to stand right in front of him.

Before he can say anything, Nico ducks his head and kisses him, a quick, simple kiss that still somehow manages to leave his mind reeling. When he pulls back, Levi finds himself leaning into him of his own accord.

He clears his throat. “What was that for?”

“Missed you.” Nico says softly. He gestures to the OR on the other side of the glass with his head. “And that was _really_ hot.”

“Was it now?” Levi doesn’t know how he’s still speaking, let alone _flirting. With Nico Kim._ (At least, he _thinks_ he’s flirting.)

“Mhm.” Nico leans his hip against the edge of the sink, grinning cheekily. “I’m really turned on by your medical expertise.”

Levi lets out a laugh that Nico joins in on.

“You know,” Nico says, smile bleeding through to his voice, “You still owe me that drink.”

Levi feels the smile spreading over his face before his brain even registers it.

“I do, don’t I?”

Nico hums under his breath before his fingers come up to run gently over the collar of Levi’s scrub top, slowly making their way up over his pulse point before cupping the side of his face.

“Yeah.” He leans forward again, and this time, Levi meets him halfway, relishing the moment their lips touch in a soft kiss.

“Joe’s tonight?” Nico continues after they part.

His smile is full of promise, playing softly over the corners of his lips, his eyes, eyes that roam Levi’s face. A promise of something new, something good, something more. Something Levi hadn’t known was missing until it came to him. Levi thinks he’s so beautiful, so unlike anything his imagination could have ever dreamt up.

“Yeah.” He says, unable to keep the smile off his face, even when Nico’s grin widens and he closes the distance between them to kiss him again.

* * *

“So I didn’t misread the situation, did I?” Taryn asks him the next day in the locker room, with a knowing smile after she catches him staring into nothing with a dopey, lovesick expression on his face.

“No.” He says, grinning at her. “You didn’t.”


End file.
